Buteyko

[brenda]

I heard about it years ago on the TV and just began to hold my breath, increasing the time each day till l could do 30 seconds and cured my asthma.

 

[KRR]

Oh good, glad to hear it! Thanks KRR. Have you done Patrick McKeown's course?

Yes, and I had a private Skype session with him too. He's a wonderful teacher. But I'd say you could get started with understanding the basics and doing some beginner practices in the book.

 

[FTY]

Sounds good! I'm going to try the breath holding exercises. I don't have asthma though, was hoping it would help with fatigue and sleep, did you notice any differences there?

 

[KRR]

Buteyko method is great for so much more than just asthma, as it resets the autonomic nervous system. I began to sleep better in very little time. The rest is slow going for me, though, but I know it's helping.

A very simple exercise is to cup your hands over your nose to reduce air flow, for a few minutes, many times a day. You should feel a little air hunger. Open up a crack if you start to feel too much air hunger. There are many ways to accomplish the same thing, reduced breathing, so you find the ones that work best for you.

 

[FTY]

Thanks! Improved sleep would be a godsend and calming the autonomic nervous system has got to help the healing along its way I love the simplicity of the exercises (and the fact that yoga and buddhist practices incorporate similar practices has got to be good).

 

[KRR]

Yes, but be careful with yogic breathing practices that include deep breathing. My own assessment of this is that yogic breathing was developed for a different population that had a different constitution. Most of us modern people need to calm the sympathetic fight or flight response and activate the parasympathetic, which reduced breathing does. But also any kind of meditation that induces the relaxation response is on the right track.

 

[FTY]

Interesting, yes that makes sense. I totally agree about controlled breathing vs. deep breathing. I was thinking of things like alternate nostril breathing and practices where you extend your out breath relative to your in breathe - more still meditation than more active yoga practices. I'm going to try doing the basic controlled breathing exercise a few times a day as in the video above but I think experience of meditation will help with softening the breathe and relaxing into it.

 

[FTY]

... interesting -